Now available: Windows Phone Central official app v3.2

If you’re a particularly keen user you may have spotted that the v3.2 update for our official app has just hit the marketplace. This is another incremental update clearing up some of the loose ends since the v3 release and various updates to our website.

Changed live tile to render at double resolution to improve sharpness on Windows Phone 8

Fixed most instances of the black live tile bug

Fixed a bug where the app would crash when thanking in the forums

Implemented fixes for image viewing in forums as well as the option to view images which fail to load in Internet Explorer

Fixed a crash caused by using emoji in comments

A few other smaller bug fixes not worth mentioning

This update applies to Windows Phone 7 users and above so can be downloaded by the broadest possible audience. Of course we are aware that those of you with Windows Phone 8 devices would like an upgrade (particularly to make the most of 16:9 resolutions where you have them). We will be producing such an update but there is a little more work than expected to ensure we make the most of the new resolutions, so bear with us whilst we get it right.

As always your feedback is welcomed in any form, be it comment, forum post, email or app review, we’ll endeavour to respond wherever possible.

Reader comments

Now available: Windows Phone Central official app v3.2

Great update!
Just a big question: would it be possible to choose the design of the live tile, between the actual image, and the site logo (the one that uses the Windows8/Windows Phone 8 logo)?
That would be awesome!
I have to say I like that logo, and the logo you use on the wpcentral site more than the actual app logo :)

Jay thanks again for a great app...one thing could you make it so that when you get a notification and you click on it you don't have to go back out of the app to read any other of the news articles by putting a home link in.

+1
This is what I just noticed too the other day (when my HD7 is finally pushing out notification). Please give a link to homepage when you enter the app from the notification bar. Thanks.
This should be one of the programming rules Microsoft should enforce. Either give home link or back button goes to homepage first before exiting the app

Because is the best WP news app from the market and you should consider that you are giveing a donation and not a payment. The app is constantly updated and believe me when I'm saying that it's worth it!!

It is one of the BEST apps designed for windows phone... PERIOD. I use it everyday, multiple times, it is very easy to post, pretty much all functionality is the same as on the desktop,and so much more. This app was made by people who took the time to truly make an app that is 100% made for Windows phone. I think it is actually the top standard and should be known and used by others as the example of an almost perfect app.

As with the article, the updates are plenty. I don't not mind paying for good things. Please keep up the good work WPC. Shoot, I almost wished you all reported on all world news as your unbiased reviews and community is just great. Mobile nations is just awesome!

Hmmm that is odd, honestly should not be happening and I'm tempted to say something might be wrong with your device. If you can afford to do it a factory reset may solve all your problems but for now I'd suggest clearing up apps by removing any you really don't use as you suggested

Would it be possible to tie in the article tags into some sort of preferences? For example, I have no interest in W8 or tablets (this is a WP site afterall) and would like to exclude them from my feed. I could imagine other people might not want gaming, store opening, xbox news etc. I would dearly love to never hear about anything related to AT&T ever again :P Perhaps this is for WP Central as a whole instead of just the app... Or is the intention for the site to become Windows Central or even Microsoft Central?

Would love to see that option aswell, specially because allot of people living outside the US don't bother usually with the new about AT&T.. And just a minor thing, would it be possible to add more different kind of gfx when the live tile turns or the option to just have the number of new updates instead of it rolling over.. ?
Either way, great work guys, love the community and all.. :-) Just tried the edit option and its sweet.. ;-)

Its pretty obvious that this site has grown to cover Microsoft's "three screens" vision. If it were soley focused on WP news, there might not be any posts for days at a time. I wonder if iPhone users are complaing about iPad and Mac news...

None of the stories about Verizion or non-US releases relates to me but its not hurting me either, I just don't click on them. I'm not OCD and have to click on everything.

At the top of the site it specifically says "Windows Phone", so presumably all news is phone related. Android is on phones and tablets so it's fine to cover both, similarly IOS is on iPhones and iPads so it's fine to cover both.
However, Windows/Windows RT/Windows Phone/Windows Phone 8/Xbox are all separate beasts. It should really become "Windows & Windows Phone Central" or "Windows Central" if it's going to cater to all news. They should really be more like the iMore site where they have a sub-menu so the user can choose to show one of Windows / Xbox / Windows Phone 7 / Windows Phone 8 news.
You're right that I can skip over Verizon / AT&T / T-Mobile news, but even completely unrelated stories get flooded with comments about those carriers. i.e. yet again asking why X carrier hasn't released an update or particular phone model.

We did that in an old version of the UI, but found that the title overlaying the image slightly made for a very nice clean divider between articles, and even improved the scrolling speed. But if you look back at old articles on the app (aka v1 releases) you'll see the mess we started with!

Thanks Jay, I guess the reason I ask is that the articles appear to me as if now they're actually not enough 'divided'. When you're scrolling through the list of articles it is not always clear where the previous article ends and the next one begins. The comment counter on the right adds to this feeling, it appears as if it is located in the 'middle' of two articles. Another divider UI-element may help, like a transparent stripe or other airy symbol, or maybe just more black space between a follow up article. Let's make this app even better ;)

There's already black space between the previous article text and the next article image. I think it's pretty perfect as it is and I'm really struggling to see it the way that you describe.
Awesome work Jay!

Much better! The animations aren't as crappy as before ( still not good ) and there's not the usual lag. I don't support the use of tiles within applications, as I think they're rather useless when they don't update and just make it harder to navigate. What's the problem with a list of text like you get when you open the Windows Phone Store?

I find the tiles visually pleasing versus a wall of text. There are places where text serves the purpose (like the Store where lots of information needs to be dispalyed), but I prefer tiles in the WPCentral app.

Of course we are aware that those of you with Windows Phone 8 devices would like an upgrade (particularly to make the most of 16:9 resolutions where you have them). We will be producing such an update but there is a little more work than expected to ensure we make the most of the new resolutions, so bear with us whilst we get it right.

First this a great app :) thank you. And i have a little question - why does the live tile on a 7.8 device flip like wp7. And other live tiles coded with the windows phone sdk 7.1 flip now likw wp8 live tiles? Are you using some 3rd party for the live tiles? And now you can set the 7.8 live tile also to big, have you seen that? You can use .net reflection and set wp8 live tiles on 7.8 devices... :)

I realized now that it flip like wp8 but before the update it was like wp7. But you could still have a look at the implementation of the biggest tile, that would be great!

There's no way to manually check for updates for all apps. But you can manually update each app by:
- Open the Marketplace/Store on your phone
- Go to the WPCentral app
- Use the back button to go back to the previous page
- Go to the WPCentral app again
- This time you'll get the Update button.

Excellent app guys, easily worth paying for. The app paid for itself with the info and advice I got here. Upgraded from a Lumia 900 to Lumia 920 (18 months early), got a free charge pad (admittedly not here yet), got a price reduction from $99 to $49 and got $36 fee waived. So I could swing paying for the app :)

I got a sweet hook up from T-Mo on my 8X (12 mo. early) getting delivered today. Not as good as yours, up front. $150, w/ $75 down, sticker at $199, but I'm going to see $25+/month less. My poor Radar got spiderwebbed out the other night. What did you say to them?? I gotta know.

Horrible (awesome)... I hate this app (love it), I never use it (I check it obsessively), and you should just take it off the marketplace (thanks for constantly updating it!). But seriously though, I appreciate the work and love this app!.

+1 Jay, I could see this looking awesome on Win8 machines. It would be going straight on my touch screen laptop that's for sure and I'd definitely pay again for it and expect a higher price. Maybe $1.99 or $2.99?

I just upgraded from the Trophy to the Lumia 822. I had previously paid for this great app. When I go to install it on the Lumia, there's no option to install, just buy. I will pay for it again, but just wondering whether I have to...

EDIT: never mind. I deleted and reinstalled the app to attempt to correct the faulty login and now I apparently have to buy it AGAIN to get rid of ads.
Uninstalled! Gave it a bad rating and review just to get my childish little revenge for having been cheated out of a Dollar.

I've just sent you a message to try and get this resolved, we don't control the billing process as it's totally handled by Microsoft, if that changes your bad rating of the app itself I hope you'll consider updating the review